---
name: "Genki Kawamura"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/genki-kawamura"
fi1m_id: "genki-kawamura"
imdb_id: "nm2929057"
tmdb_id: 237364
wikidata_id: "Q11478754"
roles: ["Producer","Director"]
born: "12 March 1979"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 4
average_fi1m_score: 80
average_as: "producer"
average_over: 3
updated: "2026-09-17T15:06:25.548196+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Genki Kawamura

## Identity

Genki Kawamura

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/genki-kawamura
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** genki-kawamura
- **IMDb ID:** nm2929057
- **TMDB ID:** 237364
- **Wikidata ID:** Q11478754
- **Same entity:** https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11478754, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2929057/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/237364

Producer and director. Born 12 March 1979 in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan.

## Details

- **Work:** Producer, Director
- **Born:** 12 March 1979, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan
- **Active:** 2012–present
- **Also known as:** 가와우라 겐키, 川村 元気
- **Titles on Fi1m:** 4: 1 directing, 3 producing
- **Frequently works with:** [Kōichirō Itō](https://film.one/person/koichiro-ito.md), [Makoto Shinkai](https://film.one/person/makoto-shinkai.md)
- **Average Fi1m score:** 80, as producer, over 3 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 2010s 82 (2), 2020s 73 (2)
- **Fi1m against the critics:** 80 to 79 across 3 titles
- **Score spread:** 2 at 80+, 1 at 60–79, 0 under 60
- **Genres:** Animation 3, Drama 3, Fantasy 2, Adventure 1, Family 1, Romance 1
- **Screen time:** 6 hours of reviewed films
- **Box office:** $777m across 3 films with figures
- **Elsewhere:** https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11478754, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2929057/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/237364

## Streaming the US now

- **HBO Max:** [*Your Name.*](https://film.one/film/your-name.md) (84)
- **Crunchyroll:** [*Suzume*](https://film.one/film/suzume.md) (74)
- **AMC+:** [*Exit 8*](https://film.one/film/exit-8.md) (72)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Genki Kawamura

> A producer who keeps choosing stories about people who cannot make up their minds, and who has now started directing them himself. *Exit 8* shows he can frighten with a white-tiled corridor, and that he does not yet trust it to speak for itself.

A man on a crowded Tokyo train, earbuds in, takes a call from his partner asking whether he wants the child she is carrying. He does not know. At the far end of the carriage a stranger is screaming at a mother whose baby will not stop crying, and nobody looks up, our man included. That is the opening of *Exit 8* (2025), which Genki Kawamura directed and wrote with Kentaro Hirase, and it is the plainest statement we have of what interests him: people who let things happen to them and then have to live in the result.

For most of his career that interest was exercised from behind the desk. He joined Toho in 2001 and produced live-action films, among them *Train Man* (2005) and *Confessions* (2010), before turning to animation in 2013 and to two directors in particular, Mamoru Hosoda and Makoto Shinkai. The Shinkai partnership runs to three films, including *Your Name.* (2016) and *Suzume* (2022). A producer's work does not appear on screen, and neither of our reviews of those films mentions him, which is as it should be. What we can see is the choosing. Both put a piece of the supernatural, a body swap, a chair that walks, next to a teenager who is not sure what they feel. We liked *Your Name.* a good deal, for its attention to two young people's feelings and in spite of a plot that keeps adding rooms. *Suzume* we found sincere about a real disaster and thin underneath.

In between he published a novel, *If Cats Disappeared from the World* (2012), set up his own company, STORY Inc., in 2017, and began directing: a short, *Duality* (2018), then *A Hundred Flowers* (2022), then *Exit 8*. His stated method for adaptation is to follow a source's rules rather than its story, and for an hour of *Exit 8* that is exactly right. The game is a corridor, a search for something wrong and a walk back; the film keeps that as its whole shape, with Kazunari Ninomiya's Lost Man doing very little and the tiles doing the rest. It is quietly frightening and it needs no help.

Then it gets help. The film widens, and the Lost Man's trouble with the baby is spelt out in full, though the corridor had already said it without a word. For the last twenty minutes we were aware of how long was left and cross about it, because the film had earned our attention and then spent it on a lesson. It is the reflex of a man who has spent two decades making sure films arrive safely with their audience. As a director he will have to learn to let a few people leave puzzled.

Kawamura once said that he is always surprised when the films succeed. On the evidence of the first hour of *Exit 8* he need not be. On the evidence of the last twenty minutes, the surprise is something he could stand to allow the rest of us.

## Biography

Genki Kawamura is a Japanese film producer, screenwriter, director and novelist. Born in Yokohama in 1979, he studied journalism at Sophia University and began his career at Toho. He has produced numerous animated features including *your name.* (2016), *Weathering With You* (2019) and *Suzume* (2022).

Kawamura wrote the bestselling novel *If Cats Disappeared from the World* (2016). He made his feature directorial debut with *A Hundred Flowers* (2022), which he also wrote and which won him the Silver Shell for Best Director at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. He directed, co-wrote the screenplay with Kentaro Hirase and produced the 2025 film *Exit 8*, adapted from the video game by Kotake Create.

*Sources: imdb.com, jfdb.jp, ja.wikipedia.org, pen-online.com.*

## On Fi1m (4)

### Directed (1)

- *Exit 8* (2025), Fi1m 72, Director, Producer, Screenplay — [page](https://film.one/film/exit-8.md)

### Produced (3) — the average rests on these

- *Suzume* (2022), Fi1m 74, Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/suzume.md)
- *Your Name.* (2016), Fi1m 84, Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/your-name.md)
- *Wolf Children* (2012), Fi1m 81, Associate Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/wolf-children.md)

## Complete filmography (43)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Exit 8* (2025), Director, Producer, Screenplay — Fi1m 72, [page](https://film.one/film/exit-8.md)
- *The Colors Within* (2024), Producer
- *April, Come She Will* (2024), Novel, Screenplay, Original Story
- *Monster* (2023), Producer
- *Suzume* (2022), Producer — Fi1m 74, [page](https://film.one/film/suzume.md)
- *A Hundred Flowers* (2022), Director, Original Story, Screenplay
- *Bubble* (2022), Producer
- *Belle* (2021), Producer
- *Gift* (2021), Script Editor
- *Doraemon: Nobita's New Dinosaur* (2020), Screenplay
- *Last Letter* (2020), Producer
- *Her Blue Sky* (2019), Producer
- *“シュガー&シュガー”サカナクションの音楽実験番組* (2019), series, Actor
- *Weathering with You* (2019), Producer
- *Baby I Love You da ze* (2018), Producer
- *It Comes* (2018), Producer
- *Million Dollar Man* (2018), Novel, Producer
- *Sunny: Our Hearts Beat Together* (2018), Producer
- *Mirai* (2018), Producer
- *Duality* (2018), Director, Screenplay, Editor
- *Doraemon: Nobita's Treasure Island* (2018), Screenplay
- *映画ふうせんいぬティニー なんだかふしぎなきょうりゅうのくに！* (2017), Original Story
- *Fireworks* (2017), Producer
- *Someone* (2016), Development Producer
- *Rage* (2016), Producer
- *Your Name.* (2016), Producer — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/film/your-name.md)
- *If Cats Disappeared from the World* (2016), Novel
- *Moom* (2016), Producer
- *Attack on Titan* (2015), Producer
- *The Boy and the Beast* (2015), Producer
- *Parasyte: Part 2* (2015), Producer
- *Parasyte: Part 1* (2014), Producer
- *Saint☆Young Men* (2013), Producer
- *Wolf Children* (2012), Associate Producer — Fi1m 81, [page](https://film.one/film/wolf-children.md)
- *Love Strikes!* (2011), Producer
- *Villain* (2010), Producer
- *Confessions* (2010), Producer
- *Detroit Metal City* (2008), Executive Producer
- *Flowers in the Shadow* (2008), Producer
- *Say Hello for Me* (2007), Producer
- *Forbidden Siren* (2006), Development Producer
- *Ski Jumping Pairs: Road to Torino 2006* (2006), Producer
- *Your Name*, Producer

## Gallery

- ![Genki Kawamura and the Duffer Brothers at a Q&A event for Kawamura's film, Exit 8, at Century City, Los Angeles. (2026)](https://film.one/media/person/6866/gallery-003b13b0284d.jpg) Genki Kawamura and the Duffer Brothers at a Q&A event for Kawamura's film, Exit 8, at Century City, Los Angeles. (2026) — Nguyk, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/70/Genki_Kawamura_and_Duffer_Brothers_-_Exit_8_-_April_6_2026.jpg/1280px-Genki_Kawamura_and_Duffer_Brothers_-_Exit_8_-_April_6_2026.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Genki Kawamura](https://film.one/media/person/6866/gallery-15b79dbc7074.jpg) Genki Kawamura — Kacy Bao, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ad/Genki_Kawamura_at_2025_Cannes_Red_Carpet_1.jpg/1280px-Genki_Kawamura_at_2025_Cannes_Red_Carpet_1.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Genki Kawamura presenting the movie Suzume at the Berlinale 2023](https://film.one/media/person/6866/gallery-cd164cb86ce0.jpg) Genki Kawamura presenting the movie Suzume at the Berlinale 2023 — Martin Kraft, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9b/MKr26307_Genki_Kawamura_%28Suzume%2C_Berlinale_2023%29.jpg/1280px-MKr26307_Genki_Kawamura_%28Suzume%2C_Berlinale_2023%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Main Cast of Exit 8 at 2025 Cannes Red Carpet](https://film.one/media/person/6866/gallery-d928268cac21.jpg) Main Cast of Exit 8 at 2025 Cannes Red Carpet — Kacy Bao, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/01/Main_Cast_of_Exit_8_at_2025_Cannes_Red_Carpet.jpg/1280px-Main_Cast_of_Exit_8_at_2025_Cannes_Red_Carpet.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Genki Kawamura](https://film.one/media/person/6866/gallery-1bfcfd07a5a6.jpg) Genki Kawamura — Image via TMDB
- ![Genki Kawamura](https://film.one/media/person/6866/gallery-8c5637e4a2c7.jpg) Genki Kawamura — Image via TMDB

## Awards

### Other awards — 2 won

- Silver Shell for Best Director 2024: Silver Shell for Best Director (won), for *A Hundred Flowers*
- Silver Shell for Best Director 2023: Silver Shell for Best Director (won), for *A Hundred Flowers*

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/genki-kawamura